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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I
have been having so much fun talking about Halloween with the kids and they are
so excited to go trick or treating this week! We have been doing
different activities for Halloween and I came across this activity when another
triplet mom friend posted a picture of her kiddies doing it. It was too cute
not to do with Dylan, Jake and Emma and I figured I would share it with
everyone. It's really easy and a lot of fun. It's great for their fine motor
skills too! If you don't have marshmallows on hand you can substitute
them with small cotton balls.Here's
what you need for this easy craft:

-
black paper-
white crayon- glue- plate- mini
marshmallows

To
begin draw an outline of a ghost onto the black paper. I'm not a great artist,
but the kids don't know the difference!

Next,
you need to glue along the lines. Depending on how well your child can glue and
trace a line at the same time, you can have him/her do this step or you can
assist them. This is a great skill for them to work on. I helped Dylan and Jake
and Emma was able to do it by herself.

Emma gluing all by herself!

Dylan got the hang of it too!

After
the glue is on the paper hand them a plate of marshmallows. Remind them that
these are not the kind to eat. I usually give them a few at the end once the
project is finished as a reward and this gives them something to look forward
to. That way they are more inclined to finish their project than want to
eat them. I encouraged them to put the marshmallows right next to each
other by telling them that the marshmallows are best friends and they always
stay together.

Dylan was so proud of his work!

They
did a great job and stayed focused the whole time! They had fun and it
kept them busy with minimal help from me. It was a relatively quick and easy
project and it turned out super cute. Another great project to help you
decorate your home for Halloween. Have fun and Happy Halloween!!!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

So fall is here and our fall crafts are in full
force. We did this adorable craft the other day. Living in Los Angeles we don't get true seasons like
other parts of the country, but I'm trying to teach Dylan, Jake and Emma about
fall and the leaves changing colors. We've been reading various books about
fall and the leaves on the trees are finally starting to change colors. This project tied in everything we have been
talking about.

This is a great art project to do, not only to help your
little one understand the season of fall, but also work on fine motor skills
with the painting.

On this day we began the project by reading one
of our favorite books, a Clifford's puppy days book called Apple-Picking Day by Samantha Brooke where it talks about fall.Then we looked out the window and observed the
color of a tree trunk. I told them today their arm was going to be the trunk of
our tree and their fingers were going to be the branches. I painted their arm
using a paint brush and brown washable paint, had them spread their fingers and
immediately pressed their arm onto the paper. (I have baby wipes on stand by to
wipe the paint off right away!)

Tree trunk

While the paint from the "trunks" were
drying we took a nature walk outside to look at the leaves on the trees and
collect leaves off the ground that have already fallen. They loved this!
So simple, yet so exciting for them. They each had a little baggie to put
the leaves they collected in so it could act as their inspiration for the
project we were going to go complete.By the time we finished our nature walk our
trunks were dry and we were ready to paint our leaves on our masterpieces. We
talked about all the different color leaves we saw and as we said each color I
put the paint on their paint palette (aka a paper plate).

Our paint palettes

Then it was time to introduce the Q-tips. They
were so excited to see they would get to make polka dots to symbolize the
leaves. It's always fun to find new objects for them to paint with and Q-tips
are great for fine motor skills. Plus they are cheap and you toss them when you
are done! (For younger kids, you could modify this and have them do it
with finger prints instead.)

Emma busy at work

Jake very focused

Dylan having fun

I encouraged them to fill in the top part of
their trunk and branches and then to make it look like the leaves were falling
down. I also told them to try and add grass at the bottom. Those were the only
directions I gave. They did excellent. Their artwork is so different, but they
were all perfect!

This art project took up a good portion of our
morning and they were so proud to display them in the kitchen window for daddy
to see for when he got home from work. I backed each of them on a different
color piece of construction paper to add some more color and make them stand
out since we were hanging them up. They are the perfect decoration for
your home this fall! Enjoy!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

I love fall, I love Halloween and I love doing crafts with
the kids! This was a great art project for us to do to get in the
Halloween spirit. They are at a great age right now where they can focus
on these art projects for a really long time which is great for them and for
me! We did this adorable candy corn mosaic collage the other morning and
not only did it turn out super cute, they learned so much in the process. We
worked on shapes, colors, position words, gluing, fine motor skills, etc and it's
not messy and really easy.Here's
what you need:-
construction paper: black, white, yellow and orange-
white, orange, yellow crayon- glue
stick-
scissorsThat's
it! I'm sure if you have kids you already have these laying around your
house!For
this project I did the whole set up with them and we did each step together.To
start I showed them a picture of a candy corn. (If we weren't doing this in the
morning and if I had some candy corn handy I would have just let them see
the real thing and taste it, but this was an impromptu project so we made do
with the picture.) Next, I helped them draw a large triangle on the black
paper using the white crayon. If yours are older or can draw a large triangle
independently let them do it themselves or have them trace over one you have
done in pencil. After we made the triangle we added the lines to divide the
triangle into 3 spaces for the different colors. We then talked about the 3
different colors and which color was at the bottom, top, and in the middle.
Then I wrote each color in the section using that color crayon.

Now it
was time to cut our paper. We are getting great at our cutting skills, but for
today I did the cutting. Feel free to let your little one do the cutting them
self, supervised of course, if they are able! Once we cut our paper into
squares we were ready to glue!

We
glued one section at a time. We talked about staying in the lines and filling
in the box. Once the box was covered with glue I would give them the
color squares for that section. Once they finished that section they
would repeat for the next two sections.

It
was so interesting to see how they each had their own style and how the boys
were so similar and Emma's was very different. No matter how
they decided to glue their pieces on, they all turned out wonderfully!

This
was a great activity for my 3 year olds, but could easily be adapted for kids
older and younger. Perfect to do in the weeks leading up to Halloween so that
you can add to your Halloween decor! Have fun!